In 2007, she shifted her attention from German metaphysics to South African street music (maskanda), with the explicit aim to question the polarity that these two fields of investigation still seem to represent. Articles about subjects ranging from 19th-century German music criticism to contemporary popular musics in Southern Africa have been published in journals such as Acta Musicologica, Ethnomusicology, SAMUS: South African Music Studies and the Dutch Journal of Music Theory. Barbara is a fellow at the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL) Community. She is co-editor of the journal the world of music (new series), and is a member of the advisory board for the journal Music Theory and Analysis.

From 2008 to 2013, Barbara worked as an assistant professor teaching European music history post-1800 at Utrecht University. In 2013, she was appointed associate professor of cultural musicology at the University of Amsterdam. During two extensive field trips for her research into maskanda in 2008 and 2009, she was a visiting professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. In the winter semester 2013-14, she was a guest professor at the Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, Germany. In the spring of 2016, she was a researcher in residence at the University of Vienna in Austria as a Balzan Visiting Scholar.

Olwage, Grant & Titus, Barbara 2008. ‘African voices: The second conference of the South African Society for Research in Music, i: A post-conference conversation between Grant Olwage and Barbara Titus.’ SAMUS: South African Music Studies 28, 190-193.

_____ 2007. ‘The first congress of the South African Society for Research in Music: “Musics, theories, practices: Focus on South Africa”, ii: An “outsider’s view”.’ SAMUS: South African Music Studies 26/27, 172-173.

Titus, Barbara 2019. ‘Inscribing knowledge: Ethnomusicological recordings as texts and practices’ Written contribution to the workshop Sonic Entanglements: Sound, Archive, and Acoustic Historiographies in the Asia Pacific. University of Amsterdam (NL)

_____ 2018. ‘Maskanda Epistemology: Some Implications of Articulating South African Knowledge on a Dutch Stage’ Individual paper at the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) Conference Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA).

_____ 2018. ‘Un/Disciplining Music: Maskanda Musicking in South Africa.’ First International Workshop Musicology without Borders, University of Bergen (N).

_____ 2018. ‘Musical Epistemologies and Musicological Disavowals: A South African Case Study’ International Conference Musicology in the Age of (Post)Globalization, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York (USA).

_____ 2016. ‘Performing histories and embellishing identities: South African maskanda music on a Dutch stage’. Balzan Workshop-Conference: Places of Interaction: Histories of Music and Dance in India, Africa and South-East Asia: British Academy London (UK).

_____ 2015. ‘The past is a foreign country: The cultural practice of imagining Early Music in the 20th century’ Keynote lecture for the STIMU Symposium The Past is a Foreign Country, in collaboration with Early Music Festival (Festival Oude Muziek) Utrecht (NL).

_____ 2014. 'Musicologica, or, the ownership of (musical) knowledge: A South African story’ International Conference on Cultural Musicology: Symposium in honour of Wim van der Meer, University of Amsterdam (NL).

_____ 2013. ‘Music analysis as participant observation: Maskanda discourse(s) in South Africa’, Seventh conference of the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM), University of Fort Hare, East London (RSA).

_____ 2013. Position statement concerning “Music, politics and the Academy”, Round table, Seventh conference of the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM), University of Fort Hare, East London (RSA).

Titus, Barbara & Olsen, Kathryn 2011. ‘Double Take: A dialogue on Zulu popular music on a world music platform’, Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), Rhodes University, Grahamstown (RSA).

_____ 2010. ‘Fieldwork on the doorstep: Shiyani's Ngcobo's Dutch Tour’, Joint conference of the International Musicological Society (IMS) and the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM), University of Stellenbosch (RSA).

_____ 2009. ‘Representations of “Zuluness” in contemporary maskanda performance’, Third Conference of the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban (RSA).

_____ 2009. ‘The utopia of phesheya (overseas) in maskanda performance in South Africa’ Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban (RSA).

_____ 2008. ‘Local identities going global: Maskanda, “Zuluness” and fantasies of Africa’ Second conference of the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM), Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth (RSA).

_____ 2008. ‘“The bird among the arts”: Idealist aestheticians on music around 1850’, Symposium of the Nederlands Genootschap voor Esthetica (NGE), Amsterdam (NL).

_____ 2007. ‘European and Zulu aesthetics in globalized maskanda music’, Conference of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE), Goldsmiths College – University of London (UK).

_____ 2007. ‘Globalized maskanda music between European musical aesthetics and Zulu musical practices’, Symposium of the South African Music Project, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, & First conference of the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM), University of the Free State, Bloemfontein (RSA)

_____ 2007. ‘Music and modernity: Reflections on the implications of Hegel’s ideal of “Kunstreligion”’, conference “Spiritual New Music: Between Fall and Resurrection”, Universiteit van Amsterdam (NL).

_____ 2003. ‘In the beginning is the end: Theodor Adorno’s dependence on 19th-century German idealist aesthetics’, Conference of the Royal Musical Association (RMA), School of Music, Cardiff University (UK).

_____ 2002. ‘Gegenwartsbewußtsein in German music criticism, 1848-1871: A Hegelian epistemology of change’ Conference of the International Musicological Society (IMS), K.U. Leuven (B).

_____ 2001. ‘The end of the arts? “Gegenwartsbewußtsein” in German music criticism’ Graduate Research Students’ Conference, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge (UK)

_____ 2001. ‘The end of the arts? “Gegenwartsbewußtsein” in German music criticism’, Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory, Koninklijk Conservatorium, Den Haag (NL).

Titus, Barbara, Oliver Seibt, meLê yamomo, Citra Aryandari 2018. ‘Asia as Method in Popular Music Studies.’ Performative Panel participation for the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-DACH) Conference Pop – Power – Positions, Universität Bern (CH).

Titus, Barbara & Birgit Abels 2017. ‘Dwelling in musical movement: Making a home both in and through music.’ Panel organization at the 13th Conference of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF): Ways of Dwelling: Crisis - Craft – Creativity. Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (D).

Titus, Barbara 2019. ‘Progressing the Past: A Short Cultural History of the Twentieth-Century Early Music Movement’, Position statement culminating into a round table discussion about ‘Expectations’ with Barbara Titus, (convenor), Heidi Erbrich, Zaynab Martin, Marilyn McDonald, Alida Schat, Joseph Tan, Mimi Mitchell. STIMU Symposium The Historical Violin, as part of the Early Music Festival (Festival Oude Muziek) Utrecht (NL).

_____ 2018. ‘Performing Zulu history on a Dutch stage: Maskanda music, fabulation, and the disavowals of humanities scholarship.’ Colloquium Series Music Matters: Performing Music through Culture, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (NL).

_____ 2015. ‘“The guitar speaks its language” Music and meaning in South African maskanda practice’ King’s College, University of London, Colloquium Series (UK).

_____ 2015. ‘Intellectual Autonomy as Profit and Privilege: Reflections on Democracy and the Humanities.’ University of Amsterdam, Lecture Series I am Human. Think! Perspectives for an endangered species. (NL).

_____ 2015. ‘Music and meaning in South Africa’ University College Roosevelt, Middelburg, Guest lecture for the BA Arts and Humanities programme (NL).

_____ 2009. ‘Who's playing with identities? Postcolonial consciousness in the context of maskanda performance’, Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity (CCRRI), University of KwaZulu-Natal (RSA) & School of Music, University of KwaZulu-Natal – On the Off Beat Seminars (RSA).

Conference organization

2015: Curator (with Jed Wentz) of the international STIMU Symposium in collaboration with the Utrecht Early Music Festival (Festival Oude Muziek) The past is a foreign country, 28-30 August 2015, TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht.

2011: Organizer (with Rachel Beckles-Willson [RHUL]) of the international conference Negotiating the West Music(ologic)ally, 11-13 April 2011, Universiteit Utrecht.

2008: Co-organizer of the ‘Music Theorist in Residence’ for the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory (VvM) – Prof Kofi Agawu, Princeton University.

2008: Co-organizer of the 10th Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory (VvM), Conservatorium Maastricht/Hogeschool Zuyd.

Titus, B. (2016). Recognizing Music as an Art Form: Friedrich Th. Vischer and German music criticism, 1848-1887. Leuven: Leuven University Press. [details]

Titus, B. (2016). Performing histories and embellishing identities: South African maskanda music on a Dutch stage. In Balzan Conference: Places of Interaction: Histories of Music and Dance in India, Africa and South-East Asia: British Academy London

2014

2008

Titus, B., & Olwage, G. (2008). African voices: The second conference of the South African Society for Research in Music, i: A post-conference conversation between Grant Olwage and Barbara Titus. South African Music Studies, 28, 190-193.

2007

Titus, B. (2007). The first congress of the South African Society for Research in Music: "Musics, theories, practices: Focus on South Africa", ii: An "outsider’s view". South African Music Studies, 26/27, 172-173.

Titus, B. (participant) (22-1-2016 - 23-1-2016). Towards a global history of martial and military music, Vienna, Austria. Discussant at the International workshop 'Towards a global history of martial and military music: Comparative perspectives for the early and (…) (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).

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